A catalog of IT services is a tool increasingly used by small and medium-sized companies that offer these services. It is no secret to anyone that IT services are increasingly in demand, and it is a priority for our clients to know what services they can request.
So, for a company that offers IT services to transmit what it can offer in an orderly, logical and understandable way, it is necessary to have a catalog of IT services that facilitates this and other tasks.
In the same way, clients are increasingly demanding in terms of transparency when knowing the services offered and what they could expect as a final result. Therefore, a catalog manages to facilitate, offer and present all the information to users with a very intuitive interface.
But what actually is an IT service catalog?
What is an IT service catalog?
At a general level, the phrase “service catalog” refers to a list of services that a company has or offers or end users in the form of a catalog.
The importance of a catalog is often greatly underestimated by some companies and entrepreneurs. However, by presenting the services in a visual format, you will exponentially improve the end user’s experience and understanding of the services available.
Keeping these concepts in mind, a catalog of IT services is nothing more than presenting the services you offer in a visual format, regardless of the format used for it. A good catalog will always include the active services offered to end users.
There are 2 types of IT service catalog. The first is a technical catalog. In this case, it is a catalog to be used by the IT team and suppliers.
The second type of catalog is the business catalog. The business catalog is to be consulted by customers and thus request the IT service you need.
If you want to implement a catalog of IT services, whether technical or business, what aspects should you take into account for its design and functionality? Although both catalogs have different objectives, they offer similar benefits. In general, to design these catalogs, you must take into account the following steps for their implementation.
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Points to consider when creating an IT service catalog.
1. Understand the needs of users.
Before creating any catalog of IT services, the first thing you should do is understand the needs of the users. In a few words, the service offer shown in the catalog must be adjusted to the needs and requirements of the end users.
For this reason, the first step is to understand what the end user wants and offer it in the most attractive way possible in the catalogue. In relation to this, there is an aspect that small companies tend to neglect.
In most cases, as the company grows, the needs of end users may change or increase. For this reason, an IT service catalog should always be reviewed frequently, adding new services and updating existing ones to stay relevant.
There are some tips that could help you better understand the needs of the end user and adjust the catalog according to growth. A good way to do this is to carry out a short survey to understand the pain points of the users and discover their expectations in relation to the service catalog.
On the other hand, it is very useful to know what the preferred channel of your end users is when planting service requests. By implementing all of this information into the catalog, while also facilitating service requests, your catalog design will start off on the right foot.
2. Choose the right team.
A catalog is not just a tool to display and present your services. An IT service catalog must have a team that immediately manages service requests and can have an adequate communication channel.
So in addition to the design, it is essential to form a good team that manages those service requests. To do this, you need to clearly assign roles and responsibilities to each member of your team.
In this regard, it is very useful to create different working groups specialized in the type of request. In fact, you can assign permissions so that users can access the catalog of IT services, keeping in mind that not all services are available to everyone.
3. Design of a friendly and direct interface.
We have mentioned that an important part of the design must be based on the understanding of the needs of the users. Now, it is very important that the design of the IT service catalog is intuitive and visually attractive.
And it is that these catalogs have a direct impact on the final user experience. A good IT service catalog must be able to capture all the necessary data.
Similarly, it should be designed to classify services into various categories for better understanding. So, in this third and last point, the recommendation is to invest time in improving the user experience.
That experience is enhanced by avoiding long or cumbersome forms and minimizing the number of clicks. It is also visually very attractive to show relevant images for your end users that add aesthetics and match the design. In short, it must be visually attractive and facilitate the request for services.
Now that you know the most relevant points to start designing an efficient catalog, it is worth knowing some of the benefits of having this great tool.
Benefits of a catalog of IT services.
There are several benefits of having an IT service catalogue. Some of these benefits may be more relevant to some companies than others. However, in general, the greatest benefits are the following:
– It makes it easier to have a clear service offer aimed at the right audience by controlling visibility.
– Show the services you offer eliminating doubts. In this way, users will be able to know exactly what they could request.
– You can automate approval requests and make those requests easy for users.
– Conversations are available to agents. This means that an agent can easily pick up another agent’s case and continue helping the end user.
– Submission of forms with all the details. This way you will achieve greater productivity and efficiency.
Of course, there are more benefits to having an IT service catalogue. They are a fabulous tool for small businesses and their proper implementation substantially improves the end user experience.
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